No magic rules. Just practical ways to think about the problems that show up when someone actually sits down and reads the story.
Seventy practical checks across story and reader experience, character, pacing and structure, continuity and payoffs, prose and final readiness.
Use it before sending your manuscript to a beta reader or editor. It is a self-assessment, not a literary-quality score.
Download the ChecklistStart with the problem in plain language: slow pacing, flat characters, unclear worldbuilding, weak dialogue, confusing scenes or feedback you cannot act on.
A practical guide to the questions we can ask while reading, with possible starting points for the kind of help that fits.
Read the author problems guideUse the Reader Friction Diagnostic or Feedback Conflict Analyzer to sharpen the question before you decide what kind of help you need.
Explore the diagnostic tools
THE SECOND PAIRRead about how stories land, why pacing can feel slow, how character choices affect a reader, what makes an ending work, and how to tell a small problem from a bigger one.
Use the ideas on your own pages before deciding whether you need a reader, an editor or another round of revision.
Request a Sample ReadWe do not believe every book needs the biggest edit on the list. If a reader is enough, we will say so. If the story needs a closer look, we will explain why. If the prose is the problem, we will not turn it into a story edit.
